A dealer who misappropriated thousands of dollars worth of casino chips at the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) casino was sentenced to nine months in jail yesterday.
Tan Hong Khee, 29, a Malaysian, was employed by MBS when he committed criminal breach of trust (CBT) by taking $34,000 worth of chips, in denominations of $1,000, between Feb 1 and 20 this year.
He pleaded guilty.
He also admitted to two counts of taking casino chips, which were his criminal proceeds, out of Singapore to Malaysia, with nine other counts taken into consideration.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Vikneswaran Kumaran said Tan, who had been working as a dealer since April 2015, would misappropriate the $1,000-denomination casino chips from the baccarat table.
Whenever any patron at the table he was working at lost bets of $1,000 or more, he would remove the corresponding value in chips from the float. He would conceal the chips in his closed palm, pretend to scratch the back of his neck, and drop the chips into his tucked-in shirt under the collar.
During a break, he would transfer the casino chips to his bag.
Tan would take the chips back to his home in Johor Baru, where he would ask an associate to encash the misappropriated casino chips at MBS. The associate did as asked and passed the cash to Tan, who would give him 10 per cent of the proceeds as commission.
Tan used some of the money to repay a debt he owed to loan sharks.
He was arrested on Feb 28 at the Tuas Checkpoint.
Tan could have been jailed for up to 15 years and fined for criminal breach of trust as a servant.
For the offence of removing the chips under the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act, he could have been fined up to $500,000 and/or jailed for up to 10 years on each charge.
